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Visa lets iPhone-toting NatWest and RBS customers pay with NFC cases, join the future
Two can play at the UK-banks-with-NFC-payments game. RBS (and by extension, NatWest) is partnering with Visa Europe to roll out TouchPay, a mobile payment system based around an iCarte case for the iPhone 4 and 4S -- sorry, early iPhone 5 owners. In tandem with a native app, the service allows paying for goods at British shops by tapping the phone at a Visa-capable NFC terminal without needing the short-range wireless built-in. Any purchases under £20 ($32) can even skip the PIN code, if you're just in that much of a hurry to get a Pret À Manger sandwich. Only 1,000 of the 9,000 who pre-registered for TouchPay are getting into Visa's wallet-free initiative at this stage, although all NatWest and RBS customers with one of Apple's semi-recent smartphones can participate once a trial run is over. We're just wondering if and when Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8 owners get in on the action.
Wireless Dynamics brings the joys of inventory management to the iPhone with the iCarte RFID reader
"You know, that pallet of overpriced skin cream isn't going to stock itself. Maybe if you'd stop playing Bingo Bonanza you'd have done that already. Oh, you say you're scanning their RFIDs to add them to our system? Whatever, you're fired." It's a scenario we see playing itself out at warehouses all around the world thanks to the iCarte from Wireless Dynamics, a device enabling iPods and iPhones to read from and write to RFID tags. It clips on the bottom and sports a mini-USB port so that you can still sync, but can also use the phone's wireless mechanisms to communicate with various systems, updating inventory or tracking purchases. As far as we know it will not prevent your phone from playing games, but we won't tell your boss about that. Nor will we tell him how much these will cost or when he can order them, since we don't know ourselves. Update: Wireless Dynamics asked that we clarify that this device is indeed consumer-oriented, able to scan the RFID tags in your credit cards, transport badges, and probably even that chip you had implanted into your dog's head. So, this means you would be able to make MasterCard PayPass and similar RFID transactions without even reaching for your wallet -- which sounds as convenient as it does disconcerting. Being able to verify that your dog hasn't been replaced by an evil clone while you were at work? Priceless.
